I'm going to be doing a Top Ways to Ruin Your Website series. We're going to go through some of the more common aspects of a webpage and point out the best ways to screw them up. Mainly so you can avoid them.

Today I want to deal with the most basic of pages: HOME. I'll discuss some over-arching themes too (like design). I'm going to deal with them here because your homepage is most likely to be your landing page--the one people see first. So things like over-all design matter more.

In no particular order:

1. Too much text:

Within two seconds my mind will be made up. I'll decide if I like your website, or if I hate it. I'm not the only one. That's the average time span for viewing a site. A decision must be made, and fast. If you bog me down with a page and half of text, I'm overwhelmed. There is an appropriate place for superfluous text: your blog. Your landing page is your elevator speech. Don't put more than two (short) paragraphs there. It should detail very simply, what you do, the purpose of your site and why I need to be on it.

2. Unclear navigation:

Think of your homepage as a gateway. It should read like the back cover synopsis of a good novel. Give just enough hints to get your reader hooked. Then let them read the book! They should never search for the next page. If someone likes your site make it easy, like my-ignuana-climbed-on-my-keyboard-and-I-ended-up-at-this-awesome-website easy to get to the rest of your site. Navigation needs to be easy to read, easy to use, easy to get to.

3. Clutter:

Clutter comes in so many forms: ads, text boxes, design elements, links... Be careful with all of them! The most important parts of your homepage: logo, navigation, welcome. That's pretty much it. Consider anything else "extra". Remember any extras need to remain secondary. Narrow your focus. Your homepage is the appetizer: tasty, pretty and short.

4. Screaming Colors:

Consider for a moment, the palette of colors: so many choices, so many variations. Why then do I regularly see all three primary colors in their purest brightest forms on websites? Is that painful for anyone besides me? Remember art class in fourth grade? Remember secondary colors? Use them. Test your color scheme on a varied audience if you have doubts. Also, what you see on paper and what you see on a screen are not always the same thing. Check the screen.

5. Forgetting the bottom line:

I must stress again, narrow your aim. Be a  marketing sniper. Your home page exists for one purpose, to snag the reader. Make sure you snag them for the right reasons! Make your purpose clear from beginning to end. Don't write a beautiful intro and forget the key points like, what your company sells.

6. No logo or branding:

Your website is an extension of your branding. It needs to tie in to your print material and other marketing material. If you distilled all your branding to its most essential form, it would be your logo. Make it the centerpiece of your home page, or at least draw attention to it.

7. Flash:

Don't do it. Don't put a flash intro on your home page. If anyone viewing your sight has less than high speed internet it will slow them down. Its also annoying. It will probably play unnecessary sound, and probably skip over heart of your information. I know it looks cool, but save it for another section. Put it on Youtube. Anywhere but auto-playing on your front page. I'm not even going to get into the SEO ramifications. Stay away from flash.

8. Too much scrolling:

This ties in with #1 too much text. Everything important on your home page should be visible without clicking. Other pages may require scrolling, your home page should not. If you need more room for text cut out designs or images that eat up screen space.

9. Ads taking up the top half of your site:

This is just tacky. Example: I read a certain blog but refuse visit their site. I get each post via RSS forward only. If ever click on a post I just see a wall of ads and have to scroll down to get to any content. I don't mean one pretty banner ad at the top, I mean a wall of advertisement preventing me from even seeing text. If I didn't already know a blog post hid down at the bottom I'd just click back thinking I found a fake site. Don't let that be you.

10. Skimping in the design department:

Really consider the design of your homepage. It probably won't look the same as every other page. Hire a professional, or at least a consultant to give you feedback. Your design is much more than colors (which I mentioned above). It should invoke an emotion or at least a perception of what kind of company you are. Be sure the feeling your site creates matches your values. Also consider what your target market expects/likes to see in design as well. This is your first date with your perfect client, make the best impression.

Worried that your site may fall into one of the top ten? Veribatim offers free site reviews. Send an email and let us share our professional opinion of your site.

What other ways can someone ruin their homepage?

Cheating may be a little dramatic, but its true that not all web design companies are created equal. There are plenty of lies told by seductive salesmen to sweet naive companies to get them... into bed, so to speak. Here are the top 5 lies I hear most often from other companies, or second hand through clients who've been burnt. No particular order. (Note: I've cranked up the sleazy tone on these a bit, to make you laugh, especially the ladies, but the core concepts are very serious.) Watch for the absolutes, both cheating men and webmasters like to use them!

Tell-Tale Lies to Listen for

1. "This design is individual just for you." Is it really? Get samples of previous work from a designer. Does everything look the same? Same format all the time? Be careful, a design isn't individual just because you can customize your logo and drop in your own text.
2. "The most important thing is design." Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge believer that design makes or breaks a site. However, don't let someone convince you that a great design outweighs sound coding. The two elements should always work together.
3. "Everyone charges a monthly fee for upkeep." Errrrnt! Wrong. Simple websites rarely require upkeep. If you don't have any interactive features you probably only will need to update keywords, not edit your whole site. If a monthly fee accompanies a proposal, make sure you find out exactly what it covers. (The other explanation for monthly fees is "hosting". More on this here.)
4. "SEO costs extra. Its never part of the coding process." I'm not referring to extra money for keyword research or link building or even content creation, just SEO within your code. If you build a site from scratch, a lot of your keywords and meta data will be included in that process. Let's be blunt, anyone who creates a website then says "Oh, and its extra to optimize that code I just did" is cheating you.
5. "Your website or social media or email or whatever is the only marketing your company needs." This might be the biggest lie in advertising across the board. Every "specialist" is going to tell you their form of marketing is the best. Look, its just not. Your website might reach one target audience but may you also need newspaper ads to reach the others. Marketing should be a cohesive effort, and rarely does putting all your efforts in one medium result in success. If someone whispers this to you over candlelight dinner or even coffee, run away.

When you work with a web design company, listen for those absolutes, be on guard for lies. And if you ever hear: "Don't worry baby, I'll take care of everything." Drop 'em. Any company that doesn't at least offer to educate you, is taking advantage of you somewhere. I haven't plenty of clients who don't want the "details" but I still let them know why we do certain things and offer to explain everything. Ask questions. Do a little research. You are a strong, independent company in your own right; don't let a webmaster cheat on you!

Have you ever been lied to by a web design company? How did it make you feel? What did you do?

Image by WhatMegSaid

Secondary Note: I'd like to ask you your opinion about something that has been bugging me, in addition to the question above. Having been in the online marketing industry for a while now, I see these lies from companies all the time. However, sometimes I think companies just starting out don't know any better. They think they have to charge random fees to be competitive, or they don't completely understand organic SEO. My question is: What do I do? Do I say something to these baby companies, struggling to make things work or ignore them? And if I should say something.... what do I say? I really appreciate your thoughts and advice.